Soon, The Flash will give us something that superhero cinema has never shown us before: the multiverse! Kidding aside, the Andy Muschietti-directed movie will give audiences a fresh twist on DC’s iconic Flashpoint storyline. The 2011 saga from Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert saw Barry Allen going back in time to try and prevent his mother’s murder. But he ended up breaking the past and the future in the process. And while The Flash will bring in many faces from DC Comics stories, some cameos did not make the cut.
The Flash will serve as the swan song for the current iteration of the DC Extended Universe. Newly minted DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have been candid about their plans to make a new unified DC Universe.
With The Flash serving as the end of an era, a lot is riding on its shoulders. Fortunately, the movie is pretty great, at least in the version that Nerdist screened at a special event. Director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti were on hand to introduce what they called not quite the final cut of the film.
While we’ll save our super spoiler thoughts for after the film’s release, the filmmaking siblings shared some juicy details with the audience. With trailers confirming the return of Michael Keaton as Batman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Michael Shannon as General Zod, and the introduction of Sasha Calle as Supergirl, The Flash has plenty of iconic DC characters.
And yes, the movie has even more cameos, guest appearances, and surprises for diehard fans of superhero cinema and comics. Andy Muschietti confirmed his initial assembly was four hours long. Therefore some choice cameos were left on the cutting room floor. When Q&A moderator Grae Drake asked the Muschiettis what characters or moments they couldn’t fit in the film, they obliged with a small sampling. The Flash cameos that unfortunately didn’t work out include Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman from the ‘70s TV series, Marlon Brando’s Jor-El from 1978’s Superman, as well as Burgess Meredith’s Penguin and Cesar Romero’s Joker from the 1960s Batman TV series.
During the reception after the screening, Nerdist spoke to Andy Muschietti with a few other reporters. In response to a question from Dorian Parks from Geeks of Color, he confirmed that Grant Gustin almost had a cameo in the film as Barry Allen from The CW’s The Flash. Muschietti was very complimentary about what The Flash series accomplished. But unfortunately, there wasn’t room to include Gustin’s take on Barry Allen. Muschietti said, “Of course, as I said before the list of cameos…was huge. So obviously we played with the idea of including DC characters from TV, but we just had to pick.”
Sadly it won’t be Oops, All Barrys.
Nerdist also asked how Muschietti felt on his first day on set compared to the last day after such a long journey with this film with 120 shooting days. According to Muschietti, “It’s funny because the sense of accomplishment at the end is like, you feel like such a relief. At the beginning, you’re a ball of stress. Of course, it defuses after a few days. Every day is like an accomplishment. Then you relax and just keep going and going. It was a lot of fun.”
As for The Flash, the fun for audiences begins on June 16. Whether or not any of those cameos make their way back into the final cut, only time—or time travel—will tell.
